Wolfiporia cocos (Schwein.) Ryvarden & Gilb.
tuckahoe
Laetiporaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
tuckahoe
Laetiporaceae
Species account author: Ian Gibson.
Extracted from Matchmaker: Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest.
Introduction to the Macrofungi
Photograph
Species Information
Summary:
Features include flat growth on wood with the whitish pore surface exposed, and microscopic characters including distinctive wide hyphae. An anamorphic stage of this fungus is a large underground sclerotium, somewhat resembling an oblong coconut, apparently growing from mycelium in roots. Ginns(28) says "Sclerotia have not been reported from western North America". "In North America this same fungus was identified as one of the traditional aboriginal food together with various tuberous plant roots all collectively known as tuckahoe" (Redhead(66)). Wolfiporia cocos (also known as Poria cocos and as fuhling), is one of the traditional cultivated oriental medicinal fungi, (Redhead(66)). In the lab the sclerotium can produce the fruiting bodies described here, but in nature the fruiting bodies occur on dead standing and fallen trees, not generally in association with the tuckahoe stage. Redhead(66) proposed in 2006, with intricate reasoning, the conservation of the species epithet ''cocos''. Justo(6) listed Wolfiporia with Laetiporaceae, but the online Index Fungorum, accessed August 29, 2020, listed them separately.
Microscopic:
spores 8-11 x 3-4 microns, cylindric, smooth, inamyloid, colorless; basidia 4-spored, 17-45 x 8-10 microns, clavate, simple-septate at base; cystidia absent, "but scarcely projecting, fusoid, thin-walled cystidioles are present, 22-38 x 5-7 microns"; hyphae dimitic, generative hyphae 3-14 microns wide, thin-walled to thick-walled, "simple-septate, occasionally branched", "some in lower subiculum greatly inflated, thick-walled", up to 20 microns wide, skeletal hyphae 3-8 microns wide, "thick-walled to almost solid, aseptate, rarely branched", (Gilbertson), spores 7-11 x 3-4 microns, cylindric, smooth, (Arora)
Spore Deposit:
white (Arora)
Notes:
Wolfiporia cocos has been found in BC, WA, OR, ID, also AB, NB, NS, ON, SK, AL, AR, CA, DE, FL, GA, IA, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, NH, NJ, NY, PA, SC, TN, TX, VA, and WI, (Gilbertson).
EDIBILITY
the large underground sclerotium was apparently eaten by various North American first nations, (Arora)
Habitat and Range
SIMILAR SPECIES
'The sclerotia of Polyporus tuberaster, although underground, are not associated with live roots, are rock-hard and gritty, and are called the "Canadian tuckahoe." '', (Ginns(28), with Latin name italicized).Habitat
annual, on living and dead conifers and hardwoods, especially oaks, associated with a brown cubical root and butt rot of conifers and hardwoods, "also decays dead standing and fallen trees", (Gilbertson), occasionally on conifer logs, but more often on "tree roots and stumps (of both hardwoods and conifers), and the fruiting bodies appearing terrestrial if they arise from sclerotia", (Arora)
Status Information
Synonyms
Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Poria cocos (Schwein.) F.A. Wolf
Sclerotium cocos Schwein.